Not as blue as the over 18s section would have you think. (reviewwritersforum.co.uk)

Member Name: angusreid

Product:	reviewwritersforum.co.uk
Date:	20/05/06 (263 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: easy to navigate and quite laid back

Disadvantages: easy to upsett a few people and sometimes, just sometimes a hint of fluff.

The review writers forum, known as FOIB2 amongst other opinion forums (Forum Of Infinite Blueness, its predecessor.) is a place where people from here and Ciao get together and discuss, moan, whinge, debate, play and jolly well do whatever they jolly well want you know?

I have held back from writing this as I wanted to make sure I could base my conclusions on both experience and knowledge rather than feelings, so I have been interactive on the site for a few months now and am probably one of the most prolific posters, wind up merchants, argumentative and topical members, if I do say so myself and I do.

At review writers you get to do whatever you jolly well want (did I mention that earlier?) you can ignore the current debates and play word games or arcade games depending. You can join the 18 plus section which tells naughty jokes, not racial ones though as you get your hands slapped for that! You can find free items through the free samples section and drink pink lemonade whilst watching the daisies grow, la la la la.

That is the sweet and nice side of RWF, friendly and fun, mellow and lackadaisical, whatever turns you on really. Me, I prefer to debate and discuss current affairs, argue the merits of long reviews and crush small beetles between my fingertips, so I tend to hang around the Dooyoo, Ciao and Current affairs sections and involve myself with anything that looks half interesting regardless of whether it regards me or not. Yes, I am a cantankerous old bar-steward and I don’t care, it’s what makes debate fun rather than talking about what colour ribbons to put into your poodles fur.

You see, rumour has it that RWF is a fluffy place and not somewhere to have a point of view that is in any way controversial or “gasp” against the grain and to a point, it is but no where near as bad as when I first joined. Once people realise that you can discuss in a “strong” way without lowering yourself to personal slating and flaming (not the Burger King version) the discussions seemed to have moved up a couple of gears and we do have quite a few good debates. One was about whether you believe in God or not and ran for longer than most of the debates I have been involved with on other sites. True, a few people took it down a peg or two and had the odd personal dig, but you get that in school playgrounds and fragile ego opinionaters are not much different to school kids at times, accept it, it’s more fun if you do.

They have competitions now and again although my donation of a gift box worth £20 was turned down as some of the admin thought it would “force” people to buy from my website, a decision I found uncontrollably hilarious and ludicrously funny, but again, I am bitter and twisted at best. You can win Amazon vouchers and stuff, nothing major but for free, it beats collecting dead flies from the window ledge. I am not going to go into detail about the things you can do really, it makes sense to go there and look yourself or rate this NU and go back to filling your bath with water in case they put a stand pipe in the village square next week, I don’t really care.

The good points of RWF are that the debating is actually getting better and people are starting to grow into good thread posters rather than the usual “How much did you get from the premium fund?” shitty little self-promotion style topics. Big brother has just started and that thread will go on and on despite the odd halfwit trying to spoil it and I am sure now that a few seasoned veterans are taking part in the debates, they will flourish and make it so much more appealing to people who enjoy a good old chinwag between tea breaks.

The bad side is that some people can not differentiate between a discussion and an argument and tend to have hissy fits and toys out the pram every time you disagree with them. A couple have left sadly, shame as it makes you feel that they must live a sheltered life and hide away from decision making and confrontation unless they have a big mate with them. One person had their membership cancelled for racial remarks which I thought was a good decision by the admin team and set an example for all to see. The “dark” side also like to shout “bully” when more than one person disagrees with them which again stinks of not wanting to accept a situation or admitting they may not be right. One person who loved to insult people and intimidate on review sites actually left because he said people were bullying HIM! LMAO.

Well, most of the whingers have either left or accepted that debate is healthy and thankfully the site has not suffered but rather grown and is quickly becoming the place to be seen, like the chic café where everyone drinks espresso and smokes cigarettes through those long holders and chats about gothic art.

My final thoughts are that RWF has to be taken seriously now and is incorporating change and growing daily. Rachel, the site owner, has come around to thinking that there is a growing need for people to chat about things other than who is what coloured dot, and is making this place into a creditable site in my view, that’s as close to a compliment as she will get though, for now.

Time will tell if RWF becomes this years opinionaters, ciaochat or whatever, you will just have to join in and make your own mind up, if you have one that is. ;o)

Summary: Growing daily and should soon be a very good palce to debate.